Meta

Do NOT Download Plants vs. Zombies 2 Update

Warning: do not download the new Plants vs. Zombies 2 update “Frostbite Caves” if you enjoy listening to music while you play the game. You will no longer be able to. In fact, the new update not only blocks iTunes tracks from playing in the background but also podcasts, Spotify and any news or YouTube apps as well.

This may not sound like a big deal at first until you realize what this means. People who take public transportation to work will no longer be able to listen to an audio book while squashing zombies, folks who listen to to Sirius radio for music or classic tapes of Howard Stern trading barbs with Eric the Actor will look for other games to play instead, some people even use baby monitor apps while playing games or browsing their iPhone- the new update will block this as well.

On a device for making phone calls and listening to music where “gaming on the go” has become massively successful, this is a senseless misstep. Hopefully it was a glitch or an error but it seems pretty intentional especially since the app also blocks the iOS’s nifty quick menu’s ability to play background audio. It doesn’t help that reading the details of the new update before downloading it will not warn anyone of this either. They make absolutely no mention of it.

Are other devices enjoying this experience-ruining addition or is it exclusively iOS?

Hopefully it is fixed soon, I really enjoy playing this game while listening to podcasts every morning before work. Until then, I’ll be switching over to any of the other 50,000+ games that don’t suffer from this massive flaw.